The rare first edition of an important contribution to the legend of Cook’s death. This is the first theatrical dramatisation of the death of Cook and thus also one of the first theatrical pieces set in Hawaii.
After the news of Cook’s death in Hawaii in February 1779 reached Europe, his achievements - and death - were celebrated in a series of creative tributes. These ranged from paintings and engraving to eulogies and dramatic works. The first, by Anna Seward and Alexander Schomberg, appeared in 1780 and were quickly followed by the notable examples of Brooke, Gianetti and Samwell.
Arnould’s pantomime - a staged spectacular with accompanying music but no dialogue - opened in Paris in October 1788. The plot is a romanticised interpretation of the events leading up to Cook’s death in Hawaii. Cook is portrayed in a merciful light, engaged by the Hawaiian King to assist against his enemies. Having completed this task, Cook intercedes to prevent the King issuing death sentences. Despite this generous act, he is later betrayed and murdered by the same men. This text is partiularly important as it was used as the basis for the 1789 London stage production The Death of Captain Cook a grand serious pantomime and several other English dramatisations of Cook’s death in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It therefore provides much of the core, if ahistorical, material from which a large part of the British public understood the explorer.
This copy is bound as the last work in a Sammelband, allowing us to see Arnould’s play in the context of the theatre of the day. The other texts include Romeo et Juliette, Ducis, 1772; Alexandre, Tragedie nouvelle en cinq actes, M de Fen…, 1754; La gageure imprevue, Sedaine, 1788, nouvelle edition; Tom Jones a Londres, Desforges, 1782; Le vaporeaux, M. M… D…, 1782; L’esprit de contradiction, Dufresny, 1760, nouvelle edition; L’anglois a Bordeaux, Favart, 1763; Le francais a Londres, Boissy, 1782, nouvelle edition.
Beddie, 2450; Holmes, 68; Kroepelien, 39, Forbes, 141.
